Category Archive

The Victoria and Albert museum is a permanent showcase of exhuberance and diversity and I was once again happily surprised by the three shows I saw last week end in London. Not only has the 19 th century decorative arts museum hired a new director, the 42 year old historian Tristram Hunt, who, angry at Brexit, left his labour … Read More

Ornithology became a science during Louis XVI’s reign and Buffon’s “Histoire Naturelle” is one of the leading scientific tools when you come to study birds. An extraordinary exhibition is taking place at Comte Moïse de Camondo’s house, in parc Monceau with 350 pieces of china, patiently collected in 1898, exhibited together with painted etchings by François-Nicolas Martinet, Henry-François Vincent and … Read More

There could not be a better place than Musée d’Orsay for an exhibition on « Spectacular Second Empire », the lavish era of Napoléon the Third, the French equivalent of Victorian style. The show curated by Guy Coeval is elegantly set by Hubert le Gall and looks more like an antique dealers stand than an exhibition. It is a pleasure … Read More

The new Pantin, a suburb north east of Paris, looks glamorous and slick. Some people compare it to what has become of Brooklyn in the last twenty years. The renovation of Magasins Géréraux, a huge warehouse located on the canal de l’Ourcq, by advertising agency BETC, is an event : the trendy 900 employees are creating a whole new cultural … Read More

It is a fascinating and fun exhibition that Centre Georges Pompidou has organized to celebrate Pierre Paulin, the French-Swiss German designer, who died in 2008. He was revealed to the public when President Pompidou commissioned a modern decor for the Elysée Palace from him in 1968. With the simple order: “don’t make any noise”. His furniture and the dismantlement of … Read More